mrmarklin

We love freedom and hate tyranny above all.

“We do not draw undue attention to ourselves”. Such as wearing a suit and tie everywhere one goes?

Another bait and switch tactic.  Conflating two things in this case.  The protection of Children which everyone agrees with and wants to happen... And Government control of Guns.  The liberal side is that if you have any any objection to the government taking away guns you want Children to die.
If you want to have a discussion you have to stop insulting anyone who thinks differently then you right out the gate.
 

Friend, these are not the words of someone seeking to understand. They are the words of a troll, someone looking for a fight and lyingly pretending to want conversation. Careful, or people might think you're @2ndRateMind.
Oh, wait...

Leadership doesn't just change over night. In the upper leadership... The 70's and above, there are a growing number of of non white ethnicities. 
The reason it is so white now is that the base is Utah.,a very white state. The leaders often know locals better. 
In the coming years, you will see a much more diverse group. 

Hmm, interesting. 
It depends on the thickness of the wood, but you SHOULD HAVE been able to find a log somewhere.  Cutting into the middle, you then cut out the middle of the log and it SHOULD be dry.  It is this principle that keeps many houses dry on the inside as well.  Three days of rain is not enough to soak through thick pieces of wood.  Taken wood that's been soaked for far longer than that in the swamps and been able to get it burning, so three days of hard rain should not be enough to stop it.
That said...$25?  I'd have said better to have dryer lint, flint and steel, and in case of emergency fire starter liquid and charcoal.  You can stack twigs on the charcoal as it burns, and then put heavier pieces to dry out as the flames get larger and hotter.  That SHOULD start a fire in a real emergency.  Bag of charcoal, fire starter, and flint and steel should be cheaper than $25.  A handaxe and a knife are a one time purchase, so shouldn't count as the entire cost. 
I suppose a survivalist would say...hey...you may not have charcoal and fire starter.  If I had an instance like what you said above...I'd look at the guy...show him my fire...and laugh at the idea.  I ALWAYS have charcoal and firestarter somewhere.  I buy gobs of it in the spring and never seem to get through all of it by winter.

There is only one God to us. That is our father in heaven. Someone put it in prettier words than myself, but I paraphrased something. Our father will always be that to us.
Intelligence can be neither created or made. Thus Eternal. 
If God, [and us technically] have always been around we don't need to worry about the chicken and egg idea, because it simply becomes one of progression.
Less like chickens and more like rock becomes sand, sand becomes sand stone, sand stone transforms into various metamorphic rocks.... etc... (Not that this comparison per say is doctrinal)

The Church gutted the leadership training model the BSA had been successful with for years, cheapened its highest award by handing it out to kids who couldn't even meet Tenderfoot requirements, and basically did nothing in its favor except throw money at it.

The Church did that?  Or your ward did that?  Because... our ward didn't do that.

Well, plain and simply- you are wrong. 

I think we don't understand stewardship well enough.  Or keys.

I went two years ago on a Murdock guided tour. This was a Mormon moderated tour and our guide was very knowledgeable, although I did not share some of his points of view regarding what we saw. 
A lot of scripture was study and discussed, hymns sung, and we covered a lot of ground.
Locations such as garden of Gethsemane are fairly well known  and major cities that Christ was in are also known such as Nazareth, Capernaum, etc.  
There is some sort of church at every site that’s halfway historical and many times more than one. 
We went to church at the BYU chapel in East Jerusalem. They have a spectacular view of Jerusalem , floor to ceiling the audience faces during sacrament service.
This tour was well worth the $$$$$$ with nice hotels and other lodgings. Most meals included except for lunch.  There was also an optional side trip to Rome to see ancient Christian site for three days. Also well worth it. 
Israel is fascinating and should be on any Christian’s bucket list. It’s great. 

I went two years ago on a Murdock guided tour. This was a Mormon moderated tour and our guide was very knowledgeable, although I did not share some of his points of view regarding what we saw. 
A lot of scripture was study and discussed, hymns sung, and we covered a lot of ground.
Locations such as garden of Gethsemane are fairly well known  and major cities that Christ was in are also known such as Nazareth, Capernaum, etc.  
There is some sort of church at every site that’s halfway historical and many times more than one. 
We went to church at the BYU chapel in East Jerusalem. They have a spectacular view of Jerusalem , floor to ceiling the audience faces during sacrament service.
This tour was well worth the $$$$$$ with nice hotels and other lodgings. Most meals included except for lunch.  There was also an optional side trip to Rome to see ancient Christian site for three days. Also well worth it. 
Israel is fascinating and should be on any Christian’s bucket list. It’s great. 

I went two years ago on a Murdock guided tour. This was a Mormon moderated tour and our guide was very knowledgeable, although I did not share some of his points of view regarding what we saw. 
A lot of scripture was study and discussed, hymns sung, and we covered a lot of ground.
Locations such as garden of Gethsemane are fairly well known  and major cities that Christ was in are also known such as Nazareth, Capernaum, etc.  
There is some sort of church at every site that’s halfway historical and many times more than one. 
We went to church at the BYU chapel in East Jerusalem. They have a spectacular view of Jerusalem , floor to ceiling the audience faces during sacrament service.
This tour was well worth the $$$$$$ with nice hotels and other lodgings. Most meals included except for lunch.  There was also an optional side trip to Rome to see ancient Christian site for three days. Also well worth it. 
Israel is fascinating and should be on any Christian’s bucket list. It’s great. 

My 2 cents.
Its only your obligation if you are privy to all the details of the issue.

Perhaps this is an instance where the 1828 dictionary would actually be helpful. For the definition of token it says, "A sign; something intended to represent or indicate another thing or an event." It also mentions some Biblical tokens such as Noah's rainbow and the blood on the doors of the Hebrews in Egypt. Maybe Phelps is referencing the signs of the second coming of the Savior and His millennial reign. The two end verses may indicate such.

How can you claim the Book of Mormon is true, but fiction???
what about the intro to the Book of Mormon?
”The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.”
That doesn’t sound fictional to me
what about Nephi’s words?
1 Nephi 1:3“And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.”
1 Nephi 14:30 “now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was carried away in the Spirit; and if all the things which I saw are not written, the things which I have written are true. And thus it is. Amen.”
How can you rely on a testimony of a fictional character?? We don’t hear president Nelson baring testimony of the truthfulness of Frodo’s decision to destroy the ring.
If the Book of Mormon is just fiction, than all we believe in must be too. The church stands or falls with the Book of Mormon.
 

I don't agree. The scriptures do not say the entire planet was covered with water. The scriptures don't recognize planetary ideas or that the earth is spherical. That is a modern idea grafted into ancient prose, like the idea that Peleg's "division of the earth" refers to continental drift. It's the imposition of modern attitudes onto ancient writing.

I have more questions than I have answers concerning the epoch story of the flood.  I believe it is possible that the Biblical record of the flood is missing important details that have been filled in with speculation within the religious community.
The earth could have been covered with water but we do not know how deep the cover was?  For example, if some places were only one molecule deep – technically it is “completely covered but it would be most difficult to find empirical evidence of such a shallow covering.
I am amused that there are many in the religious community that believe the ark was the only means of preserving life but do not believe in evolution.  The ark is not of sufficient size to even hold the breeding stock of all the known species of worms– let alone all the necessary life forms for the species that currently exist on earth.  Many will proclaim that evolution has never produced offspring of a different species also claim to believe the ark preserved all species that exist today.  Such thinking is similar to planning a space exploration trip to the sun – but planning to go at night so that the space ship will not be burned up.
There are also broad differences in genetic diversity in modern human populations that cannot be empirically explained within the 5 thousand years between the flood and our time.  Unless we realize major amounts of information are missing from either our Biblical scripture or our historical accounts (or both) – both written and empirically historical. 
I can live with questions that do not have answers but I will not accept answers that cannot be questioned.
 
The Traveler

Perhaps it is just my bromance with Spackman's work, but I dislike the 1998 Ensign article -- for many of the reasons Spackman mentions here: http://www.timesandseasons.org/harchive/2014/02/mormon-appropriation-of-fundamentalism-and-its-outcomes/ In particular, I dislike the whole no true Scotman-ish "[all good] Latter-day Saints believe in a global flood" that the author suggests. In less than 24 hours, this thread alone is evidence that there are many good LDS who do not believe in a literal, global flood. Speaking for myself, I don't usually appreciate articles like this that imply that my faith and commitment to God, Christ, and His Church are are somehow "less than" because I don't believe in a literal global flood. That was part of why I highlighted Elder Widtsoe's idea was to help point out that even some of our highest leaders have not believed in a global flood.
Probably related, but another aspect of this is how many "faith crises" (in Mormonism and broader Christianity) include some element of "could not reconcile science and religion and so I chose science". How many of those felt limited by a fundamenantilist view of scripture, and did not know that there are perfectly good ways of reconciling science and scripture.

The writers of the Old Testament used “wash” to refer to “immersion” (the tevilah; for example, Exodus 40:12). As we know, analog rituals can be performed symbolically and carry the same legitimacy as though they took place in actuality. So the earth may have been symbolically baptized through a local flood, taking nothing away from our doctrine. The symbolic ordinance of a local flood yields the same effect as though an actual, global immersion took place; the ordinance renders the effect as though the event took place literally. There are many instances in Church practice where this pattern continues today.

Don't forget that hay in Spanish is pronounced as ay  or long I.
Saying hay (as in harvested alfalfa) will get you nowhere.
I took several years of German.  What is taught is what is known as Hochdeutsch or high German.  In many areas of Germany or Switzerland the colloquialisms are so rampant that's it can be very difficult to understand what people are saying.  Luckily they understand English.
Also true in Spanish speaking countries.  The worst is perhaps Argentina.

Get a good job, and begin your career.  Save up and buy a home to live in.   Save money as you work hard advancing yourself.
Women will find you.
You have no hobbies or interests that are fatal to having a normal life.

When I went on my mission ca. 1967 there were around two million members and twenty thousand missionaries. Now there are around fifteen million members and around 60-70 thousand missionaries. As a percentage of the membership, the missionary ratio has plummeted. 
 
That’s very discouraging if I’m running the Church. 

On my mission, my companion and I convinced the local Bishop to have a monthly ward cookout on a Saturday during the day.  It became one of the most popular ward activities ever.  We had tons of investigators coming, and lots of ward membership participation as well.  We chose a different park every month.  This made it much easier for families with kids to join in without worries of babysitter, etc.  We had board games and sports at the outing, as well as non sport outdoor activities.  It was awesome.  For some reason, I have not been able to convince any leadership to do this after my mission, even when I was Ward Mission Leader.  I think this would be very effective in many places.